Saturday, May 09, 2009

Republicans in America, now debating among themselves whether to appeal to "moderates" to rebuild their party, would do well to consider Thatcher's wisdom: "Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides."

Britain, like America, is not in turmoil because it once embraced the conservative principles of Margaret Thatcher — principles that worked.

Britain and America are in turmoil because they too quickly abandoned Thatcher's principles in favor of a superficial, "feel-good" philosophy. Using another food analogy, we want dessert before — even instead of — our vegetables, though we know what's best for us.

Lady Thatcher's official portrait will be unveiled this week and hung at 10 Downing Street. A greater honor would be for the British people to again "hang" her principles in their minds and hearts.

... When Lady Thatcher was leader of the opposition 35 years ago, she founded the Centre for Policy Studies to express the benefits of free markets. The result was a revolution in economic policy, and four election victories in a row. Times change. By a Darwinian process, a new world order is evolving. But nobody knows its shape. To help define it, we need to do what she intended – search for real ideas with the zeal of a prospector hunting gold.

Beatrice Webb, the founder of the London School of Economics, used to say that people fall in love with funny things: “Some people fall in love with their chauffeur. I fell in love with Soviet Communism.”

Mrs Thatcher fell in love, too. With the exact opposite.

That is why she would despise the vision that is opening up before us –

in which the state controls your mortgage,

your bank account and your life insurance;

where the state routinely passes your papers from one government department to another,

your phone bills to the health department,

your health records to Revenue & Customs,

your tax records to the benefits department;

your car journeys tracked by state sensors;

your bus and Tube journeys caught on state cameras;

your foreign trips notified to the authorities;

every click on your computer available for inspection;

your identity card always ready for presentation;

one in three on the state’s payroll;

two in three receive a state payment;

cities where half the jobs are with the state,

and where the state has views on how you fill your rubbish bin.

Lady Thatcher would see this for what it is.

She would block it with every ounce of her body. Because she knows where it is headed.

The Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas will not accept a two-state solution as a means to end the conflict with Israel, the movement's Damascus-based politburo chief Khaled Meshal said Saturday.

Meshal said that Hamas rejects the two-state solution but could still be part of a national unity government if a Palestinian state is established based on 1967 borders.

Meshal told the New York Times last week that Hamas has agreed with the rival Fatah movement to a state based on 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem, the dismantling of settlements and a right of return for Palestinians.

He said such a deal could be the basis for a long-lasting ceasefire. [10 YEARS.]

Some analysts saw the remarks as an indirect recognition of Israel.

ONLY IDIOT ANALYSTS.

HAMAS'S EARLIER STATEMENT THAT THEY MIGHT ACCEPT THE 1967 BORDER WAS FOR JUST TEN YEARS - A HUDNA.

Former president, in interview with NBC, claims Palestinian group 'adhered to ceasefire', adds 'ME peace not possible without Hamas involvement'

Yitzhak BenhorinPublished: 01.26.09, 19:17 / Israel News

Hamas can be trusted, former US President Jimmy Carter said Monday, in an interview on NBC's 'Today' show. Carter spoke with NBC's Meredith Vieira about his perspective on the Middle East conflict, and his new book, "We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land."

Decision-making Rice: US warned Carter not to talk to Hamas / Associated PressSecretary of state claims US administration explicitly warned former president not to meet representatives of the Islamic group, so as not to confuse message that US will not deal with Hamas

According to the former president, Hamas never deviated from their commitments as per the ceasefire agreement. He said that, during his meetings with Hamas leaders in Damascus and Gaza, he was promised that Hamas would honor agreements between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel, as long as they were supported by public referendum.

Hamas did bad things. I'm not defending them. But they did adhere to the ceasefire fully, Carter maintained. He added that Israel has a choice between a one-state solution – which is, for Israel, a catastrophe, and a two-state solution, which everyone would support.

In his interview, Carter explained the rationale behind his book, saying "I am writing another book about the Middle East because the new president of the United States is facing a major opportunity — and responsibility — to lead in ending conflict between Israel and its neighbors. The time is now. Peace is possible."

'Desire for peaceful and prosperous lives'

He also attempted to explain the controversy over his previous book, "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid," noting that the use of the word apartheid was provocative and claiming that it had triggered a debate over the use of the word, rather than the content of his book.

Sunday, Carter met with President Barack Obama's new US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell. While Carter is not certain Obama should speak directly with Hamas, he believes that Mitchell should, explaining that "there won't be peace in the Middle East without Hamas involvement."

"Well, I think there needs to be a step-by-step process. The first step, in my opinion, in an overall peace agreement - there's got to be some reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. And that can go forward, I believe, if the United States and Israel would give it our tacit support, our strong support."

Carter points out that Meshal has said that "Hamas would accept any agreement negotiated between [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] Abu Mazen and Israeli authorities if it was submitted to the Palestinian people in a referendum and got a positive vote. So, it's not a hopeless case to have good-faith talks based on a two-state solution that would be approved by the Palestinians."

Would you advocate a change in the American attitude toward Hamas?

"Yes. I think it's absolutely important that Hamas be involved in any sort of peace process.

ONLY ANTI-SEMITES CAN NEGOTIATE WITH HAMAS.

JIMMY CARTER - AND SEVERAL OBAMA AIDES - AND HIS LONGTIME CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND KHALIDI AND OBAMA'S PREACHER FOR 20 YEARS, REV WRIGHT - ARE ALL ANTI-SEMITES.

IN IT, HE PROCLAIMED THAT FREEDOM BELONGS TO ALL PERSONS EVERYWHERE; OUR RIGHTS ARE NOT BEQUEATHED BY STATES OR CULTURES BUT ARE INNATE AND BELONG TO US ALL.

AND HE SAID AMERICA WOULD FIGHT TO MAKE SURE ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE HAD THOSE INNATE RIGHTS.

THAT'S NOW DERISIVELY LABELED NEO-CONSERVATISM BY THE POSTMODERNISTS AND LEFTISTS, AND THEY TREAT US NECONS AS IF WE WERE OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM.

IT MIGHT BE NOW - AS THE MSM AND DEMOCRAT PARTY ARE CONTROLLED BY THE KIND OF EXTREME LEFTISTS WHO FDR ABHORRED. (MANY OF THESE LEFTISTS WERE IN THE DEPT OF STATE DURING FDR'S TERMS, BUT REALLY WORKING FOR STALIN - LIKE AL HISS!)

I address you, the members of this new Congress, at a moment unprecedented in the history of the union. I use the word “unprecedented” because at no previous time has American security been as seriously threatened from without as it is today.

Since the permanent formation of our government under the Constitution in 1789, most of the periods of crisis in our history have related to our domestic affairs. And, fortunately, only one of these -- the four-year war between the States -- ever threatened our national unity. Today, thank God, 130,000,000 Americans in 48 States have forgotten points of the compass in our national unity.

It is true that prior to 1914 the United States often has been disturbed by events in other continents. We have even engaged in two wars with European nations and in a number of undeclared wars in the West Indies, in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific, for the maintenance of American rights and for the principles of peaceful commerce. But in no case had a serious threat been raised against our national safety or our continued independence.

What I seek to convey is the historic truth that the United States as a nation has at all times maintained opposition -- clear, definite opposition -- to any attempt to lock us in behind an ancient Chinese wall while the procession of civilization went past. Today, thinking of our children and of their children, we oppose enforced isolation for ourselves or for any other part of the Americas.

That determination of ours, extending over all these years, was proved, for example, in the early days during the quarter century of wars following the French Revolution. While the Napoleonic struggles did threaten interests of the United States because of the French foothold in the West Indies and in Louisiana, and while we engaged in the War of 1812 to vindicate our right to peaceful trade, it is nevertheless clear that neither France nor Great Britain nor any other nation was aiming at domination of the whole world.

And in like fashion, from 1815 to 1914 -- ninety-nine years -- no single war in Europe or in Asia constituted a real threat against our future or against the future of any other American nation.

Except in the Maximilian interlude in Mexico, no foreign power sought to establish itself in this hemisphere. And the strength of the British fleet in the Atlantic has been a friendly strength; it is still a friendly strength.

Even when the World War broke out in 1914, it seemed to contain only small threat of danger to our own American future. But as time went on, as we remember, the American people began to visualize what the downfall of democratic nations might mean to our own democracy.

We need not overemphasize imperfections in the peace of Versailles. We need not harp on failure of the democracies to deal with problems of world reconstruction. We should remember that the peace of 1919 was far less unjust than the kind of pacification which began even before Munich, and which is being carried on under the new order of tyranny that seeks to spread over every continent today. The American people have unalterably set their faces against that tyranny.

I suppose that every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world -- assailed either by arms or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace. During 16 long months this assault has blotted out the whole pattern of democratic life in an appalling number of independent nations, great and small. And the assailants are still on the march, threatening other nations, great and small.

Therefore, as your President, performing my constitutional duty to "give to the Congress information of the state of the union," I find it unhappily necessary to report that the future and the safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our borders.

Armed defense of democratic existence is now being gallantly waged in four continents. If that defense fails, all the population and all the resources of Europe and Asia, and Africa and Austral-Asia will be dominated by conquerors. And let us remember that the total of those populations in those four continents, the total of those populations and their resources greatly exceed the sum total of the population and the resources of the whole of the Western Hemisphere -- yes, many times over.

In times like these it is immature -- and, incidentally, untrue -- for anybody to brag that an unprepared America, single-handed and with one hand tied behind its back, can hold off the whole world.

No realistic American can expect from a dictator’s peace international generosity, or return of true independence, or world disarmament, or freedom of expression, or freedom of religion -- or even good business.

Such a peace would bring no security for us or for our neighbors. Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

As a nation we may take pride in the fact that we are soft-hearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed.

We must always be wary of those who with sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal preach the "ism" of appeasement.

We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests.

I have recently pointed out how quickly the tempo of modern warfare could bring into our very midst the physical attack which we must eventually expect if the dictator nations win this war.

There is much loose talk of our immunity from immediate and direct invasion from across the seas. Obviously, as long as the British Navy retains its power, no such danger exists. Even if there were no British Navy, it is not probable that any enemy would be stupid enough to attack us by landing troops in the United States from across thousands of miles of ocean, until it had acquired strategic bases from which to operate.

But we learn much from the lessons of the past years in Europe -- particularly the lesson of Norway, whose essential seaports were captured by treachery and surprise built up over a series of years. The first phase of the invasion of this hemisphere would not be the landing of regular troops. The necessary strategic points would be occupied by secret agents and by their dupes -- and great numbers of them are already here and in Latin America. As long as the aggressor nations maintain the offensive they, not we, will choose the time and the place and the method of their attack.

And that is why the future of all the American Republics is today in serious danger. That is why this annual message to the Congress is unique in our history. That is why every member of the executive branch of the government and every member of the Congress face great responsibility, great accountability. The need of the moment is that our actions and our policy should be devoted primarily -- almost exclusively -- to meeting this foreign peril. For all our domestic problems are now a part of the great emergency.

Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all our fellow men within our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all nations, large and small. And the justice of morality must and will win in the end.

Our national policy is this:

First, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to all-inclusive national defense.

Secondly, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to full support of all those resolute people everywhere who are resisting aggression and are thereby keeping war away from our hemisphere. By this support we express our determination that the democratic cause shall prevail, and we strengthen the defense and the security of our own nation.

Third, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that principles of morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers.

We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people's freedom.

In the recent national election there was no substantial difference between the two great parties in respect to that national policy. No issue was fought out on this line before the American electorate. And today it is abundantly evident that American citizens everywhere are demanding and supporting speedy and complete action in recognition of obvious danger.

Therefore, the immediate need is a swift and driving increase in our armament production. Leaders of industry and labor have responded to our summons. Goals of speed have been set. In some cases these goals are being reached ahead of time. In some cases we are on schedule; in other cases there are slight but not serious delays. And in some cases -- and, I am sorry to say, very important cases -- we are all concerned by the slowness of the accomplishment of our plans.

The Army and Navy, however, have made substantial progress during the past year. Actual experience is improving and speeding up our methods of production with every passing day. And today's best is not good enough for tomorrow.

I am not satisfied with the progress thus far made. The men in charge of the program represent the best in training, in ability, and in patriotism. They are not satisfied with the progress thus far made. None of us will be satisfied until the job is done.

No matter whether the original goal was set too high or too low, our objective is quicker and better results.

To give you two illustrations:

We are behind schedule in turning out finished airplanes. We are working day and night to solve the innumerable problems and to catch up.

We are ahead of schedule in building warships, but we are working to get even further ahead of that schedule.

To change a whole nation from a basis of peacetime production of implements of peace to a basis of wartime production of implements of war is no small task. And the greatest difficulty comes at the beginning of the program, when new tools, new plant facilities, new assembly lines, new shipways must first be constructed before the actual material begins to flow steadily and speedily from them.

The Congress of course, must rightly keep itself informed at all times of the progress of the program. However, there is certain information, as the Congress itself will readily recognize, which, in the interests of our own security and those of the nations that we are supporting, must of needs be kept in confidence.

New circumstances are constantly begetting new needs for our safety. I shall ask this Congress for greatly increased new appropriations and authorizations to carry on what we have begun.

I also ask this Congress for authority and for funds sufficient to manufacture additional munitions and war supplies of many kinds, to be turned over to those nations which are now in actual war with aggressor nations. Our most useful and immediate role is to act as an arsenal for them as well as for ourselves. They do not need manpower, but they do need billions of dollars’ worth of the weapons of defense.

The time is near when they will not be able to pay for them all in ready cash. We cannot, and we will not, tell them that they must surrender merely because of present inability to pay for the weapons which we know they must have.

I do not recommend that we make them a loan of dollars with which to pay for these weapons -- a loan to be repaid in dollars. I recommend that we make it possible for those nations to continue to obtain war materials in the United States, fitting their orders into our own program. And nearly all of their material would, if the time ever came, be useful in our own defense.

Taking counsel of expert military and naval authorities, considering what is best for our own security, we are free to decide how much should be kept here and how much should be sent abroad to our friends who, by their determined and heroic resistance, are giving us time in which to make ready our own defense.

For what we send abroad we shall be repaid, repaid within a reasonable time following the close of hostilities, repaid in similar materials, or at our option in other goods of many kinds which they can produce and which we need.

Let us say to the democracies: "We Americans are vitally concerned in your defense of freedom. We are putting forth our energies, our resources, and our organizing powers to give you the strength to regain and maintain a free world. We shall send you in ever-increasing numbers, ships, planes, tanks, guns. That is our purpose and our pledge."

In fulfillment of this purpose we will not be intimidated by the threats of dictators that they will regard as a breach of international law or as an act of war our aid to the democracies which dare to resist their aggression. Such aid -- Such aid is not an act of war, even if a dictator should unilaterally proclaim it so to be.

And when the dictators -- if the dictators -- are ready to make war upon us, they will not wait for an act of war on our part.

They did not wait for Norway or Belgium or the Netherlands to commit an act of war.

Their only interest is in a new one-way international law, which lacks mutuality in its observance and therefore becomes an instrument of oppression.

The happiness of future generations of Americans may well depend on how effective and how immediate we can make our aid felt. No one can tell the exact character of the emergency situations that we may be called upon to meet.

The nation's hands must not be tied when the nation's life is in danger.

Yes, and we must prepare, all of us prepare, to make the sacrifices that the emergency -- almost as serious as war itself -- demands. Whatever stands in the way of speed and efficiency in defense, in defense preparations of any kind, must give way to the national need.

A free nation has the right to expect full cooperation from all groups. A free nation has the right to look to the leaders of business, of labor, and of agriculture to take the lead in stimulating effort, not among other groups but within their own group.

The best way of dealing with the few slackers or trouble-makers in our midst is, first, to shame them by patriotic example, and if that fails, to use the sovereignty of government to save government.

As men do not live by bread alone, they do not fight by armaments alone. Those who man our defenses and those behind them who build our defenses must have the stamina and the courage which come from unshakable belief in the manner of life which they are defending. The mighty action that we are calling for cannot be based on a disregard of all the things worth fighting for.

The nation takes great satisfaction and much strength from the things which have been done to make its people conscious of their individual stake in the preservation of democratic life in America. Those things have toughened the fiber of our people, have renewed their faith and strengthened their devotion to the institutions we make ready to protect.

Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social and economic problems which are the root cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor in the world. For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy.

The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.

Jobs for those who can work.

Security for those who need it.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

The enjoyment -- The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.

Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples:

We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance.

We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.

We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it.

I have called for personal sacrifice, and I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call. A part of the sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my budget message I will recommend that a greater portion of this great defense program be paid for from taxation than we are paying for today. No person should try, or be allowed to get rich out of the program, and the principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation.

If the Congress maintains these principles the voters, putting patriotism ahead pocketbooks, will give you their applause.

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called “new order” of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

To that new order we oppose the greater conception -- the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.

Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change, in a perpetual, peaceful revolution, a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions without the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.

This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women, and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God.

Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.

The long-exposure photo at right, captured by Signaltheorist, shows the 30-minutes-long path of a Roomba® robotic vacuum cleaner. Appearing to have chaos and disorganization at the core of its effort, it reminds this blogger of the recently-announced effort to rebrand the Republican Party which threaten to leave conservative-first party members in a political vacuum.

Cancer doctors are failing to tell their patients about life-extending "top up" drugs which are not available on the NHS, research has found.

The specialists feel so uncomfortable discussing treatments that their patients may not be able to afford that just one in five routinely disclose the existence of drugs which the health service will not pay for, according to charity Beating Bowel Cancer.

Its findings come as a parliamentary committee prepares to publish a report into changes in Government rules to allow patients who pay for such treatment to continue to be cared for by the NHS.

Until a u-turn last year, patients who bought drugs the health service refused to fund were forced to pay tens of thousands more for their hospital care. The policy had the greatest impact on bowel cancer sufferers, because Avastin and Erbitux, the two main drugs for those with the advanced stages of the disease, are normally denied by the NHS on cost grounds. On Tuesday, the health select committee will examine whether the new rules are working.

HMMM: COMMITTEES DETERMINING WHO GETS WHAT CARE AND NOT YOU AND YOUR DOCTOR?!!?!?

THAT'S WHAT SOCIALISM IS ALL ABOUT.

AND OBAMA WOULD PEOPLE THESE COMMITTEES WITH SEIU, ACORN, POLITICAL CRONIES AND BUREAUCRATS.

We haven't heard much lately from Moqtada al-Sadr, the erstwhile leader of the Sadrist movement and the Jaysh al-Mahdi who is reportedly living in Iran. Sadr has not been officially been seen in public since June of 2007, and last appeared on the media in al-Jazeera interview in May 2008. So it is a bit of a surprise to see him suddenly appear in Turkey for two days of talks. What's he up to?

According to Turkish reports, Sadr met with Prime Minister Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, along with other Turkish officials.No official statement was released from the meetings with Turkish officials. Al-Zaman reports that an unidentified Turkish official said that they discussed the security situation in Iraq and the evolving Turkish-Iranian relationship. A leading Sadrist said that Sadr went to Turkey from Tehran to follow up on conversations between Turkish officials and Sadrists in Najaf about the future of Iraq (which according to al-Zaman is the first official admission by the Sadrists that he has been in Iran).

Perhaps as important, Sadr also reportedly met with a large number of Sadrist officials and personalities as well as a delegation of top leaders who came up from Iraq. He reportedly laid out the political strategy for the movement in the new era.

The picture remains unclear regarding the reasons behind Moqtada al-Sadr's surprise appearance in Turkey after an almost two year absence in Iran, even if it was [officially] announced that al-Sadr was in Turkey to attend a conference called "The al-Sadr movement and future challenges."

The welcome that al-Sadr received in Turkey with regards to his meeting with both the Turkish President and Prime Minister justifies questions being asked on the real motive behind the visit. Some of the Arabs concerned [with this turn of events] believe that Turkey is beginning to play the role that it desires which confirms that it has the [requisite] power and position [in the region]. This is confirmed by the appointment of the new Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who's of the "let's tackle and clear all issues" school of thought.

THIS IS A BAD DEVELOPMENT:

MOOKIE'S HIGH STATUS ON THIS VISIT IS TROUBLE FOR IRAQ'S FUTURE.

AND THE FACT THAT ERDOGAN ROLLED OUT THE RED CARPET PROVES THAT HE AND HIS AKP ARE A REAL ISLAMIST MOVEMENT AND NOT TO BE TRUSTED:

The government did a stress test of capital adequacy of the banks and determined that the largest institutions need about $75 billion in additional capital. The stress test assumes potentially tough economic conditions in the US going forward. NYT:

Under the worst-case assumptions — an unemployment rate of 10.3 percent next year, an economic contraction of 3.3 percent this year and a 22 percent further decline in housing prices — the losses by the 19 banks could total $600 billion this year and next, or 9.1 percent of the banks’ total loans, regulators concluded. That rate of loss would be higher than any other since 1921. But while the adverse situation was supposed to be unlikely, it is not that much worse than what has happened so far. Unemployment hit 8.5 percent in April and could top 9 percent as early as Friday, when the Labor Department releases its employment report for May.

The bill for this orgy of spending will be passed on to a bunch of chumps, whom we in America call “children.” The Obama administration is robbing from the future to pay for the present on a scale unprecedented in US history.

Perhaps the greatest outrage is the overt dishonesty of it all — these huge budget deficits are based on an impossibly rosy scenario of tremendous growth in the economy...

The Rev. Michael Pfleger has ordered the American flag at St. Sabina Church hung upside-down -- a historic sign of distress -- to symbolize the growing death toll among the city's youngsters.

Alex Arellano was beaten, burned and shot in the head last week. He was 15.

So far this school year, 36 children and teens have been murdered -- more than one a week -- and Pfleger is among a chorus of weary Chicagoans who say the slayings aren't getting the attention they deserve.

Had 36 kids died of swine flu this year, "there would be this great influx of resources that say, 'Let's stop this, lets deal with this,' " Pfleger said.

Pfleger is not the first Chicagoan to express the sentiment. In 2007, after the city recorded 31 murdered children during the school year, Arne Duncan, then-CEO of public schools, expressed similar disappointment. Video Watch why the violence seems worse now »

Duncan, who now serves as President Obama's secretary of education, said "all hell would break loose" if these killings took place in one of the metro area's upscale enclaves.

"If that happened to one of Chicago's wealthiest suburbs -- and God forbid it ever did -- if it was a child being shot dead every two weeks in Hinsdale or Winnetka or Barrington, do you think the status quo would remain? There's no way it would," he said.

Yet the problem has only worsened since Duncan publicly shared his observation. With about a month left in the school year, Chicago's public schools have topped the number of students slain in the 2007-2008 and 2006-2007 school years -- 27 and 31, respectively.

WHAT PUNDITARIAN SAID ABOUT THIS (paraphrasing):

Chicago is a city that has been ruled by the Daley machine for 75 years.

Democrats. And exclusively by Democrat liberal policies.

And Obama is a product of that machine and he espouses those policies.

And that machine is nowhere more powerful than in the ghetto.

But don't wait for Pfleger to tell the truth about it.

Or Obama.

Or the old time media

Obama and his corrupt thug cronies from the machine - Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett and Rezko and Blago and Wright and Ayers and Pfleger and Duncan --- the Sec Ed --- et al - are in the process of turning the whole nation into Chicago.

They will succeed if we let them.

We mustn't let them.

DISSENT ACCORDINGLY.

(CLICK OBAMA-PFLEGER PIC ABOVE FOR MORE ON THIS CORRUPT LEFTIST TWOSOME. WHAT SCUM.)

CBS Evening News: One Word From A General Seems To Bring Wounded Soldier Back To Life

Lt. Brian Brennan was severely wounded in Iraq and faced unbeatable odds but, as David Martin reports, he made a remarkable recovery ...

... Lt. Brian Brennan is a walking, talking miracle.

There are no other words for it. One year ago today, he lost both his legs to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, and now his mother is watching him learn to run all over again, reports

The 44 pounds of explosives which tore off his legs and killed three fellow soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division also left Brennan with a brain injury so traumatic there seemed little hope for recovery.

"He didn’t wake up," said Joanne, his mother. "That's when the real terror struck us all. Oh my, he may never wake up. They said on scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst, he was a 1."

Then one day last June he had a visitor.

"It was a very, very grim situation, very tough one," said General David Petraeus.

Petraeus, who once commanded the 101st Airborne, tried the usual words of encouragement.

"Hang tough, big guy," he said. "Your troopers need you back out there."

But Petraeus' four stars carried no weight.

"There was absolutely no response whatsoever," Petraeus said.

"Did you think there was any hope?" Martin asked.

"Not really," Petraeus said. ... Petraeus turned to leave, then decided to give it one last try. "I just decided to shout out 'Currihee.'" That's right, "Currihee." It's a Cherokee Indian word that the was the motto for the famous "Band of Brothers" regiment in the 101st. "We counted 'One, two, three, Currihee,'" Petraeus said.

"That's when he kind of sat up in the bed as best as he could," said Brennan's dad Jim.

"Like saying, 'I'm in here, I'm in here,'" Joanne said.

"All of a sudden, the lieutenant, his stumps are banging up and down on the sheets," Petraeus said. "His head is moving around and very clearly responding to his unit's nickname."

"Everybody in the facility was clapping and crying," Joanne said. "The doctors who had been working on him and giving us all the bad news came running down the hall, 'We heard, we heard.'" ... "After that, he just every day got a little better, a little better, a little better," Jim said.

Just last week, Petraeus introduced Brennan as the unsung hero of the New Jersey Hall of Fame. That walk across the stage brought the house down, and overwhelmed his father.

"I know how tough he is," Jim said. "If there was anybody in this world who could do it, he was the one."

Less than a year after being comatose and unresponsive, he delivered an acceptance speech to a crowd of 2,000.

In 1991, as a battalion commander at Fort Campbell, Ky., he was shot in the chest with an M-16 rifle when a soldier tripped during a training exercise. Rushed into surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he underwent five hours of surgery by Bill Frist, who a decade later became Senate majority leader. While skydiving in 2000, Petraeus survived the abrupt collapse of his parachute 60 feet up. His shattered pelvis was reassembled with a plate and long screws.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is alarmed at the public admission by Hizbullah that it provided support to Gaza-based terrorists from Egypt and condemns the "unwarranted interference" in Egypt's domestic affairs, a UN envoy said Thursday.

... The UN chief also reiterates his call for Hizbullah and all other militias operating in Lebanon to be disarmed and demobilized as demanded by a UN Security Council resolution adopted in 2004, he said.

Roed-Larsen is Ban's envoy dealing with implementation of the 2004 resolution, and he discussed Hizbullah's alleged interference in Egypt as he presented Ban's latest report on compliance with the resolution to the Security Council.

Roed-Larsen said that in recent weeks, "there has been a growing concern that Hizbullah has engaged in clandestine and illegal militant activities beyond Lebanese territory."

He cited Egypt's announcement on April 8 that it had uncovered a plot by 49 men linked to Hizbullah to destabilize the country by carrying out "hostile operations" on Egyptian institutions and Israeli tourists.

Two days later, Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah rejected the accusations but admitted a Hizbullah member was in Egypt supervising weapons shipments to Hamas.

FINALLY THE UN IS SAYING THE RIGHT THINGS ON THIS ISSUE.

TOO BAD WORDS WON'T CHANGE A DAMN THING.

FACT IS: HIZBALLAH AND HAMAS AND IRAN AND THE TALIBAN MUST BE SMASHED KINETICALLY.

The government will quickly take control of hundreds of small boats and other assets belonging to oil service companies operating in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday, tightening his grip on the industry.

Earlier in the day, Venezuela's legislature approved a law allowing the nationalization of a group of oil service companies. Chavez said the takeovers will start on Friday in the Lake Maracaibo oil heartland.

"Tomorrow we will start to recuperate assets and goods that will now belong to the state,

CHAVEZ IS A LEFT-WING TYRANT DOING WHAT LEFT-WING TYRANTS HAVE ALWAYS DONE: SEIZE PRIVATE PROPERTY AND ARGUE IT'S FOR THE COMMON GOOD.

On January 22, 2009, President Obama signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison that holds hundreds of the world’s most dangerous terrorists within one year. This decision was made without a backup plan in place for where these terrorists would go. So the key question remains: What is our nation’s plan for dealing with these terrorists? Will they be brought into the United States? Will they be released back onto the battlefield? These questions haven’t been answered, and the American people deserve answers.

The Keep Terrorists Out of America Act gives Members of Congress an opportunity to stand with the American people by affirming their opposition to releasing the terrorists at Guantanamo prison or bringing them into the United States.

It also makes clear that governors and state legislatures must pre-approve the transfer or release of any terrorist detainee into their respective states.

And lastly it requires the President to meet strict criteria and certification standards before terrorists housed at the Guantanamo prison could be brought to the United States.

"I'm not only an outsider, but I'm a 20-years-older-than-anybody-around outsider," Jones said. "I'm a former general. And it took me a while to get the president to call me by my first name. Now, I'm 'Hey, you,' " he said with a laugh.

"But there is a generational thing here. There is a process thing here. I'm used to staffs, and I'm used to a certain order. I'm used to people having certain roles. And so there's a very natural adjustment period."

"My calculus was that it would take six months," Jones said. "We're about halfway there, and I think every week gets a little better."

THIS IS NOT SURPRISING, BUT DISAPPOINTING NEVERTHELESS.

JONES HAS ONE OF THE THREE OR FOUR MOST IMPORTANT JOBS IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND HE AND OBAMA AND THE WHITE HOSUE STAFF ARE STILL NOT IN-SYNCH.

THIS TELLS US EVERYTHING WE ALREADY KNEW ABOUT OBAMA IS TRUE: HE'S A HARCORE DOVE WHO DOESN'T REALLY GIOVE A CRAP ABOUT OUR NATIONAL DEFENSE; LIKE EVERY "GOOD" POSTMODERNIST, HE WANTS THE USA BROUGHT DOWN A NOTCH.

Twenty three people injured in clashes between the police and opposition in Georgia are still in hospital, Georgia's opposition said on Thursday.

The opposition, who have been demonstrating in the capital for the past month, claim over 60 people, including six police officers, were injured in clashes at a police compound in Didi Digomi, a Tbilisi suburb on Wednesday night, 29 people were hospitalized.

"We are fighting for democracy, and we will not disperse until we see President Mikheil Saakashvili resign," said Nino Burdzhanadze, ex-parliamentary speaker, who heads the Democratic Movement-United Georgia.

TBILISI, Georgia – Georgian authorities released three opposition protesters Thursday, trying to defuse a wave of unrest that erupted into violence when police clashed with demonstrators clamoring for the resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Weeks of peaceful protests turned ugly Wednesday, one day after Saakashvili was forced to back off claims that he had suppressed a Moscow-backed coup attempt.

Despite the overwhelming success of the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer® while it was used by the U.S. military from 2002-2008, a small group within the Department of Defense bureaucracy — namely the Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment (formerly known as the DoD Polygraph Institute) — has used its position and influence to block the use of this portable lie detector in combat zones by the military services. According to a man with a “chip” in the game, their actions are “doing great damage to our national security by keeping it from the war fighters who need it the most.”

Today, I offer a dozen pieces of evidence that reach across DoD to make a solid argument supporting CVSA® as a better tool than the Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System, a cousin to the traditional polygraph, that was designated the “only approved credibility assessment technologies” in the Department of Defense when Under Secretary of Defense James R. Clapper Jr.’s signed a memo to that effect Oct. 29, 2007.

Read all about it in the second in a series of copyrighted articles at Bob McCarty Writes.

The new US administration's engagement with Iran could be a positive move as long as there are clear parameters and a timetable for negotiations, and as long as the concerns of Arab states like Egypt are kept in mind, an Egyptian Foreign Ministry representative said Wednesday.

"We told them that this is a good step," spokesman Hossam Zaki told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday about US President Obama's decision to conduct talks with Iran. "Confrontation so far has had negative effects... but you have to know on what terms you are engaging and until when you are engaging. If you decide on these issues, then it is possibly a good move."

While Iran is a regional power that shares a common Islamic heritage with the Arab world, their behavior "is subversive in many ways and we have to keep them in check," he said.

On Wednesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Egypt's view on the danger of nuclear weapons did not distinguish between Israeli capabilities and the dangers that the Iranian case could pose, especially if its program became one with military capability that threatened regional security.

"Possession of any nuclear weapons in the Middle East is unacceptable by Egypt... particularly as the current confrontation between Iran and the West and Israel has consequences for the stability and peace in the region," he said, according to a statement released by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

Zaki was quoted by the Middle East News Agency this week as saying that Israel's nuclear abilities posed the first and greatest threat to the region.

No kidding. Then even if they consider Iran a greater threat, their stand on Israel is still disgusting.

Republican Captures Seat in Alexandria:Council Result Another Setback For Democrats

Republicans captured a seat on the six-member Alexandria City Council last night, defying political trends that have prevailed in the city since 2003 and giving an emotional boost to local party officials.

With all 27 precincts counted last night, supporters of challenger Frank Fannon IV, a banker at SunTrust Mortgage, were jubilant about breaking the Democratic stranglehold on the council.

"A lot of people in Alexandria thought there was no way Republicans can win," Fannon said. "The citizens of Alexandria are ready for a change -- and not having a one-party system. People like to have options."

The GOP victory is the latest in a series of wins in low-turnout elections in Northern Virginia that have been taken as a sign of resurgence for an otherwise embattled party....

A second Republican-backed candidate won a seat on the council as well....

[...]

In a city that went 72 percent for President Obama in November, Republicans were counting on some Democrats and independents to cross over. In interviews outside polling places, some residents said they split their votes, preferring to back individuals rather than vote along party lines....